Project Kesher and Columbia University

On April 9th, Project Kesher Board Member and Director of the Global Mental Health World Health Organization Collaborating Centre at Columbia University, Dr. Kathleen Pike lead a delegation of 18 mental health professionals from the organization to Warsaw, Poland and Ukraine. In Warsaw, the group attended the 27th European Congress of Psychiatry. In Ukraine, the group focused on women's mental health by learning and sharing their expertise with local professionals and activists. 

Led by Project Kesher Ukraine, the group met with Oksana Syvak, Executive Director of Open Doors Center of Psychological Counseling, Vlada Nedak, Program Director of Project Kesher Ukraine, and Dr. Natalya Silina, Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Founder of Dr. Silina Educational Project School of Women’s Health. Dr.  Pike lead a lecture and discussion on “Mental Health Across the Female Developmental Lifespan” at the National Medical University.  In Ukraine, women's physical and mental health still carries extreme stigma and shame, forcing silence around issues including post-partum depression, hormonal imbalances, domestic violence and sexual assault. The delegation features a philanthropic component in which they will allocate funds raised among them to a grassroots project addressing women's mental health in  Ukraine. 

Dr. Pike traveled to Ukraine last year to help Project Kesher launch the first ever Radio Show/Podcast on the topic of women's health in Ukraine on Hromadske Public Radio, with the support of a Grand Canadian Challenge Grant. 

Dr. Kathleen M. Pike is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and The Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC). She serves as Director of the Global Mental Health WHO Collaborating Centre at Columbia University and Deputy Director of the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program.  She is also Senior Supervising Psychologist in the Center for Eating Disorders at CUMC.